Tech Tool: ChatterPix

Have you ever wanted to make a picture talk? How cute would it be to hear a book character or a cute animal read a story to you? Do you have some camera-shy students who might respond better to not seeing themselves but hearing themselves read or speak? What about finding a new way to collect fluency grades? This app is a possible tool to help with all of these!

ChatterPix is an app that allows the user to put their voice onto any image and make it speak. I was shown this app by another amazing educator. She was planning on having students record their voices while reading animal reports and having their animal speak. It was such a neat idea, but I wasn't sure how to use it for my 5th-grade students.

Luckily I had a few snow days to try it out. I chose to create a snow day challenge for my students. The first one I just used videos of me pretending to be different characters. The second day I chose to try out Chatterpix. I took pictures of my dogs and used those images and made them talk using the app. I loved being able to make videos, especially with my animals. It was fun to make them talk and give them silly voices. I had some really awesome feedback from my students. I even had students create their own videos with their pets telling my dog Bella where she left her missing bone.

My tech review: I would say this app is easy to use and really a fun way to add tech to a lesson. It would be a great app for younger students especially since the magic of animals or objects talking would be excited for them. I would say for older students it would be fun to use if they were creating something for a younger audience, like doing a story read aloud or sharing research. This would also be a great way for student created character to tell their own stories or artwork speak for itself. I loved that there are filters and stickers. This would be something that students would love too, but also what they might spend most of their time on.

Now, this app can only be downloaded through the Google Play Store or the iTunes App Store. Therefore it is best suited for tablets and cell phones. This works against our one to one which is Chromebooks, but if I was to use it I would have a station set up with our class I-pad and a station with me and my iPhone and record all students within a week. If you are one to one tablets or even a small group set of tablets I would definitely say try it out. Take a leap and show your #teachingpower by giving ChatterPix a try!

Thoughts
What other apps do you use in your classroom? What app of tech tool should I review next?

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